Thursday 26 April 2012

Competition Season is Under Way

Over the past week FWOC has hosted the Prairie Opener near Rumsey, AB on Sunday April 22 which was the first forest event of the season but really the forest part was lacking with the open rolling hills on the SL Ranch map. The navigation looks a lot easier than it really is and I found that out pretty quick on my way to the first control. Also the Wednesday night series started up at Prince's Island Park last night, which is a fast urban sprint map near downtown Calgary. Next up are Team trials for WOC in Switzerland which are going to be held on back to back weekends at Sage Stomp XXVII (May 19-20) on the McQueen Lake map near Kamloops, BC and Barebones in Canmore , AB (May 25-27). The Sprint and Long are going to be held on the Canmore Nordic Centre map and the Middle will be on the scenic Mt Laurie map. Should be a great two weekends packed with competition.

To view maps in a more zoomed in view, right click image and open in new tab or window.

Time- 77:43

 
Time- 20:49

Train on,
Damian

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Sunday 1 April 2012

Back to the Orienteering Grind


This weekend was my first time orienteering this season with two back to back training sessions on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was a slow, sloppy, and sluggish Middle distance training at Elbow Bluffs near Bragg Creek, AB just outside of Calgary. Patrick Goeres and I ran the 2007 team trials Middle distance course. Very vague in places, made some mistakes but also had some good legs. Took it really easy and didn't push at all. Just tried to use the compass and try to read as much as I could.  It was tough/slow going through some deep snow in places. Flags would have made it much easier and nicer.
Sunday Patrick and I went out to Bow Valley map to run the 2011 M 17-20 Barebones Long distance course up to #14 only missed the last 3 controls because we wanted to keep it around 60 minutes. Patrick started and we alternated leading each control which made it easier when deciding where the control should be. Hooked some controls but also had some solid ones too, felt way better than yesterday since I was back into the right mindset for orienteering. Amazing map and terrain for some top notch orienteering training. There was some knee high snow drifts in places but not much snow at all. I think almost all the orienteering cobwebs are gone now, I hope. Here are the two training maps.


Train on,
Damian